Sigi, Southern Moravia, Earth, 20th August 2435
"Alright, who wants coffee?" Nyx, the blue-haired newlywed hostess, asks and I push my mug forward, grumbling something not even identifiable to me into my beard, while Lonk declines politely. Just the smell of the coffee she pours into the mug wakes me.
As I take the first sip, the door clicks and I hear the sound of frantic claws on the floor and quickly put the mug back down into the middle of the table and turn just in time to stop the grey blur from punching me in the eye. Instead, I get furiously licked by Luna as she greets me because she hasn't seen me in forever. Forever meaning since yesterday.
"Good morning," says Dunstan, a short-haired man with ER implants and a musketeer goatee, from the door of the room as Luna pokes Lonk with her nose until he scratches her behind the ears before she moves on to climb on Nyx's head for a change, further tousling her bright blue hair. She redirects the assault by pulling out a snack from somewhere and the dog trots off onto the sofa to feast on her prize.
"Morning," I answer in unison with Lonk, a long-haired ginger with a neural interface implant behind his right ear.
"Sky looks clear, no wind to speak of, should be a pleasant flight," the host informs us as he walks over to us, his metallic feet clanging softly against the floor. Then he kisses his new wife and adds with a chuckle "might even make it work on time."
"Yeah, haha. I'm setting it to low, slow flight, and sleeping some more," answers Lonk, gesturing to emphasize the lack of speed of his flight, and I must say that I identify with that sentiment even though I currently don't have a job to slack off from. The rest of the breakfast passes in an increasingly cheerful mood, as the level of caffeine-induced awareness increases. Lonk leaves soon after, saying his goodbyes and once again congratulating the couple. As the whine of his car's engines fades, I decide to stretch my legs and take a breath of fresh air before leaving.
As I leave the family room, I see Dunstan turning on the tv in the middle of the news woman's sentence, "...the marshalls have been successful in de-escalating the tensions in Amarok system..."
"Fucking border systems, fucking marshalls," I mumble to myself as the door closes behind me. I rub the scar on my left rib and fish out a cigarette out of my pocket.
I take Luna for a walk around my friend's neighborhood by the river. Most likely the same route Dunstan walked with her just a few hours ago, but the she-wolf doesn't seem to mind. No wonder they chose this place. Except for the occasional barking dog or a short whine of a car flying in or out, the only sound to be heard is the burble of the river and the rustling of leaves in the gentle wind.
Soon, I reach a bridge across the river and have to make a decision whether to walk back the same way or loop around the other side. I stop in the middle of the bridge to finish the cigarette while watching some ducks as Luna sniffs something with laser-sharp focus and such dedication I wonder if she's going to stick to the floor like a suction cup. I have to chuckle at the thought to which she responds by waging her tail twice and I go back to watching ducks.
Suddenly, Luna whines as all around, dogs start barking. I look around but see no reason for the commotion. A slightly familiar yet ominous feeling tickles at the back of my neck and I jog back off the bridge to look up. Just as I leave the cover of the bridge, I see an unmistakable burst of a ship exiting warp in the high atmosphere, way too low. Then two, three, four, six more, followed by the thunder of the first wave of arrivals.
"Luna, heel!" I command and the dog takes her place by my left foot, stepping nervously and looking alternately at me and towards home. She has the right idea, so I look at her and say "Let's go! Home!" and we take off.
As I run after the dog, more thunder booms from above and streaks of light fill the sky. I slow down a bit to look up. More bursts of light, more ships warping into the low orbit. Streaks of light coming from them could only mean railgun fire, space to space for now.
Just as I think this, one streak hits the horizon with such power even I can feel the tremor. I pick up the speed once again, breaking into a dead sprint after the she-wolf.
We are back at Carricks' house in no time. The dog slips through the open gate and disappears inside. I run up and come face to face with Dunstan, standing by two large bags, holding one more in his hand. We lock eyes for a split second and nod our understanding to each other. By that time, Luna is standing just inside the glass door. Peeking outside nervously.
With that, Dunstan drops the bags and takes off after the dog. I grab the bags and shove them into the trunk of my aircar next to the "fun case." I turn around to see Dunstan and Luna trotting towards the car so I slide the door open and the she-wolf hops so her human can strap her in. By then, Nyx is also out of the house, carrying two smaller bags, probably laptops. She shoves the bags into gaps in the trunk and plops next to me and secures her seatbelt. Dunstan sits in the back with the dog, trying to comfort her.
"You said you have a ship nearby," I yell over the whine of the engines winding up from a cold start, "where is it?"
"Drosendorf," answers Nyx instead of her husband.
"Southwest," add Dunstan as he clicks on his seatbelt, lighting up an indicator on the dashboard.
Satisfied that everyone is secure, I yank the steering wheel to me, pulling the car abruptly into the sky, then stomping on the gas pedal. Even in the fairly soundproof cabin of the car, the whine of engines carried by the chassis is almost unbearable, but soon, we are zipping through the valley towards the nearest spaceport, where Dunstan's yacht awaits, hopefully. As we fly, I hear Dunstan fumbling with something and multiple buckles clicking into place. I wonder what he's doing, but more importantly, I wonder how many people have the same idea and as we approach the spaceport, it turns out the answer is "a lot."
I slow down and take the car across the spaceport, low, but still high over the heads of the gathered throng. Per Dunstan's instructions, I find the right hangar and put the car down by the entrance. We get out of the car and open the trunk. I throw a bag over my shoulder and watch my companions do the same. Then I look at the "fun case."
"Dunstan, Nyx, come closer," I tell them and they do so. "Take these, Jupiter knows what it looks like inside" I continue, after fishing out two holstered pistols. They snap the guns to their belts and I pull out the submachine gun that rests next to the pistols, then take an extra clip for each of us.
"Let's hope we don't need them," Nyx says with a grimace, and I shrug. Better than leaving them here.
"Alright, Luna, let's go, heel" commands Dunstan, and the dog, her harness connected to the Dunstan's, trots by her master's side, Nyx right behind them. I pick up the now mostly empty "fun case" and follow the Carricks in the wake made by people not wanting to come close to an armed guy with a wolf.
As he approaches the entrance, Dunstan is confronted by the pair of security bots, probably the only reason nobody has gotten inside yet. However, by the time I catch up, it's sorted out and I pass right through. We cross the small hall onto a gangplank and into the ship through the starboard airlock. On the way, I look around the landing pad obviously able to house a much larger ship than the seventy-meter yacht.
The ship is a real beauty. Sleek, sharp lines of a speedboat in shiny chromed blue with two racing stripes down the middle. Maleficent, as Dunstan named her, is sitting there, her warp drive ring folded and inert, allowing the onlooker to appreciate the biggest selling point of the Starhawk line, the massive observation dome on the upper deck.
"I'll warm her up quickly," I say to Dunstan after we all drop our bags in the locker just inside and he agrees. I jog off to the cockpit on the upper deck with Nyx following close, leaving Dunstan to stand in the airlock.
I get to the cockpit, sit down and boot up the ship, then start the reactor with Nyx's help. Then I start booting up other systems while Nyx pulls up a camera view from the starboard airlock. There, Dunstan is pacing back and forth next to Luna, who's tied to a ring inside the ship proper.
I boot up the navigation system and it starts pulling the most current data from the spaceport computers. The reactor reaches optimal temperature and pressure quickly and without a hitch. Booting up the shield generator proves a little more difficult as it apparently got a firmware update recently which caused some trouble. I curse under my breath.
"I gotta go reset this manually on the bow," I tell Nyx, then get up and jog off. As I'm leaving, I hear Dunstan shout "Let them in!" from the screen in the cockpit. I trot down the stairs and come face to face with Lonk and Eliz, his no less red-haired wife. We exchange a quick greeting and I continue on my way, past a couple with two small children. Then a woman with a child and a pregnant girl accompanied by another young woman.
I reach the bow in no time and open the shield access hatch when I hear a thunderclap, followed by a loud boom as the ground shakes. I curse and flip the switches. The generator hums to life and the row of indicators starts switching from red to green one by one. Not fast enough for my liking. I shut the console to the sound of another thunderclap, this time followed not only by a boom but also by screaming so I take off in a dead run through the small confines of the ship, weaving between the confused and terrified people Dunstan took on.
".. take two more adults! Life support has its limits damn it! I can take one more. Maybe one adult and two children!" I hear Dunstan shouting angrily as I run past. His anger is underscored by Luna's deep growling.
"Then leave the dog!" answers an equally angry voice.
"I said no! If you don't like it, you can all stay!" Dunstan shoots back. By then, I'm on the stairs to the upper deck, and with the thundering all around, I can't hear anymore.
I reach the cockpit and Nyx gives me a terrified glance.
"Shield?" I ask.
"Twenty percent, but rising," she answers, distracted.
"Shit, that will have to do," I curse as I strap into my seat. Then I push the intercom button and say: "Dunstan, we're ready to go. And we fucking should!"
On the display, I see him reach the intercom in the airlock and then hear his affirmative answer so I run the final check of the thrusters and engage the inertial dampeners and switch on the shield. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nyx stiffen as she watches the feed and before I can ask, I hear a gunshot. Not from the silenced feed, through the ship.
"Go," says Dunstan's voice from the intercom after a moment and I don't need anything else. Airlock is shut so I disengage the plank.
"Everybody hold on!" Nyx almost screams into the intercom, and I yank the ship up with the same abruptness as the car before.
The spaceport disappears from view and is replaced by streaks of light as the ships battle in orbit while bombarding the surface at the same time. Once again mirroring the previous flight, I send the ship surging forward, this time on a tail of bluish-white fusion flame.
Maleficent screams upward, but everywhere I look, more ships are popping in, pouring out more fighters, missiles, railgun darts, and most treacherous of all, nearly invisible laser bolts. Even Maleficent's for civilian tech rather advanced systems can barely keep up with the situation. There is no way out. Or is there?
"Let's not tell him about this," I say through gritted teeth as I point the ship just behind the nearest NATO ship and put the metaphorical pedal all the way to the metal. It doesn't take long for the navy ships to notice us and turn a pair of missiles our way. Fine, two we can manage. I hope. "Nyx, tell me this thing has the belly turret."
"Of course, she has," she answers, smirking despite the circumstances. "I'm tracking the missiles, slave roll axis to the fire system. As well as tripled shields and a ... something shield something discharger."
"Done," I confirm, just as the ship starts rolling on her own, bringing the belly-mounted phase turret to bear on the two rapidly approaching missiles. "ZAP!" I exclaim as the first missile explodes harmlessly some ten kilometers away. However, the second one gets smarter and it takes the turret five more tries to take it down, uncomfortable two kilometers off the starboard bow. But there is more coming.
Nyx takes a deep breath and then speaks on open channel "NATO ship, this is Maleficent, we have refugees on board and are merely defending ourselves. Cease fire, I repeat, we have refugees, cease fire."
An eternity passes before the answers comes, even though it takes them only about five seconds.
"Maleficent, this is the Mortal Reminder, please change your course to avoid an accidental collision," a young male voice answers and the second salvo of missiles changes direction suddenly towards the Coalition ship. The sigh of relief that escapes my lungs is cut short when the Coalition ship fires a salvo from its railgun broadside, right in our path.
"Fuuuuck," hisses Nyx and I can see why, there is no avoiding a collision without drastically changing course, making us a slower target.
"Just a tiny break, I'll put her through."
"There," she responds as a few of the darts turn green on the heads-up display. I adjust the course and the ship rolls to bring the turret to bear on the darts. A moment later, they disappear.
"Nice job!"
"Don't celebrate yet, the turret is cooked," she responds sourly. And here I thought this day just couldn't get any better. Before I could ponder the sheer loveliness of our situation, Nyx continues, this time she screams into the intercom, "BRACE!"
Maleficent shakes violently as we pass through the tiny hole in the salvo and a thick red haze appears outside the porthole that automatically switches to full synthetic view. I glance at the shield gauge - 2%, just as the target lock alarm blares, but no decompression, that's good. We have no new holes. For now.
"Are we alive?" Nyx asks.
"Who's targeting us?"
"The frigate over there," she answers as the ship in question lights up on the HUD.
"Well, shit," I think to myself - and maybe out loud because Nyx chuckles - as I turn the ship's tail towards our attacker and push the engine power lever past the safety and all the way up. Being the new ship that she is, Maleficent's inertial dampeners adapt without missing a beat. I choose a NATO ship, another massive cruiser, named Asator according to the HUD, and gun it towards it.
"Call them," I tell Nyx.
"It's no good," she answers after another moment. Well, they'll either understand, or we're toast anyway.
A moment later the massive warship changes its course. it is now bearing straight down on us. Then another blare of the alarm.
"Missiles, coming after us."
"Ain't that just peachy," but the Asator's turrets open up, narrowly missing our barely existing shield. Blowing up the frigate's missiles instead. I keep Maleficent rising to meet the massive warship that's our only hope of survival. The computer doesn't seem to appreciate the situation and keeps screaming every time the frigate launches another salvo of missiles, and then again when the cruiser's point defense network fires in our direction every five seconds. Finally, Nyx turns off the alarm and I almost miss it immediately.
In retrospect, it turned out to be less than thirty seconds, but at the moment, it feels like a year at the very least. Thirty seconds of near silence is interrupted only by the crying of both children and parents, while the red outside the porthole is so dense that we can only see the synthetic view. Maybe it's for the best because the pointer that is the Asator quickly becomes a silhouette, that is bearing down straight at us.
I change the course slightly so that we miss hitting it, but after a glance at the shiels gauge, maybe I shouldn't have bothered. This way, we're going to burn in its fusion tail. But there is nowhere else to go. Maybe we'll be lucky, maybe they'll cut the engines for a moment. If not, we've traded one death for another.
Eyes fixed on the coming doom, I completely miss the noise coming from behind as well as its originator. I just stare as Dunstan smacks into my shoulder, mere seconds before passing our savior that is also our doom. That brings me back and I look at Dunstan as he mouths the word "Zapper." I gawk for a moment longer before it clicks.
That's what Nyx meant, an emergency shield static discharger, commonly known as a zapper. I smash the button on my dashboard just as we pass the massive warship.
A blinding flash comes from the outside, clearing the haze blocking our view. For the shortest fraction of a moment, we have a view of Asator so close I feel like I could almost touch its armor plating. And then there's darkness outside. For a moment I'm back in Tortuga Sector, staring into the starless abyss that's about to swallow me.
The porthole becomes transparent again and I realize that wasn't darkness, just the automation protecting our eyes.
"PUNCH IT!" Dunstan commands and an option appears on my screen. "Epsilon Eridani String, Warp 2."
Nyx reacts before I can by pressing the appropriate button and the ship shudders slightly as the warp ring locks in position and the coils come to life, that shouldn't happen, not on a brand new ship. A problem for later. As soon as it's green, I push the next button and the starfield disappears once again giving way to the strangeness of the warp. I collapse back into the chair as Dunstan storms off again, his wife throwing up into a bag she pulled out of somewhere.
I finally have time to think about what just happened. It actually happened. We were all kinda ready for it, we had our escape strategies, but even with the escalating tensions, we didn't want to believe it would ever come. I stare into the weird non-space of the warp bubble for a while until Nyx's voice pulls me out of the trance and I realize she's no longer next to me.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have escaped the Earth and are currently en route to the base of the Epsilon Eridani String. Once there, we will choose our next step based on the situation. There will be food in the galley shortly, but please do not disturb the captain while he's cooking. If you need any clothes, do not hesitate to ask me. I'm the woman with blue hair."
